React, etc. Tech Stack

Svelte is a new way to build UIs on the web. While this may sound like it's been done many times before, Svelte has a different approach. Instead of pushing the complexity of the UI generation and maintenance in form of browser abstractions, Svelte works completely at compile time.

The scene for Node.js developers for a general purpose framework has been fairly stable. Express.js continues to be the number one option, but it is growing a bit long in the tooth and the future of Express remains murky.

Search continues to be the top driver of traffic to a large majority of websites. While Facebook and other social media platform are growing, good visibility in search results (SERP) continues to be crucial.

So how to make sure you stay on top in results in the fast-moving web development scene with adoption of standards like Web Components?

In November it was revealed that malware is being spread using SVG and it's capability of containing executable JavaScript code within it. The specific attack has been used widely on Facebook chat and is used as a method to get users to download even more dangerous ransomware.

The technical merits of React are hard to challenge. It has sparked a revolution in how developers build web user interfaces - with or without React. Facebook's somewhat unclear licensing (BSD+Patents) have been fuel for FUD among Open Source developers. FOSS communities continue to have a built in resistance to "evil corporations", to which Facebook can easily be classified to.

Many web developers recall working with Sharepoint as a web CMS as a horrible tool. Customization the table structures generated by the proprietary backend code was the antithesis in the heydays of the web standard movement in the 2000's.

Keystone.js is a contemporary alternative to simple content management needs. The tool is written in JavaScript and runs on the Node.js platform. You can think of it as a more contemporary version of WordPress. In it's latest 4.0 version the tool gets a React powered UI.

Visual Studio Code is a light weight code editor from Microsoft. It is a great tool for JavaScript development and specifically development with the TypeScript language being a Microsoft Open Source effort.